


Let's Get Down to "Business"

by crystallights



Category: BLACKPINK (Band), Red Velvet (K-pop Band), SEVENTEEN (Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, BusinessMajor!Jennie, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Gen, Jeonghan appears like at the tail end of this story, Joshua just wants his sleep, Kind of enemies to lovers, Nayeon cries cuz fuck chemistry, PsychologyMajor!Jisoo, SEVENTEEN maknae line mentioned, The Jennie Jisoo Yeri Sana crossover no one asked for but here it is, The ending of this story is way better than the beginning just trust me on this, What do we have to pay for printing too?, Why TF do college printers never work?, no beta we die like men, psychologyproject
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24491632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystallights/pseuds/crystallights
Summary: There’s always been a negative stigma around business majors; Jisoo’s always known that. But, she experiences it when one business major in the form of an irritable Jennie Kim pisses her off.Unfortunately, they run into each other again. So, they make amends, and that’s it. Leave the rest in history.But when her dumbass psychology professor decides to pair Jennie and Jisoo together for a project aboutloveof all things, let’s just say things get a little interesting.Especially when Jisoo starts to develop feelings for said business major.Shit.Alternatively: When someone asks you what is love, as a college student, would you even know how to respond?When Jisoo is partnered with the bitchy (but not really) and pretty business major, Jennie Kim, for a project that will take a month to complete, she has to come to terms with this own question for herself when she starts feeling something for the captivating Jennie.
Relationships: Jennie Kim/Kim Jisoo
Comments: 14
Kudos: 115





	1. Off to a Rocky Start

**Author's Note:**

> Guys it’s finally here! I’ve been working on this WIP since January, so I’m so excited to finally be bringing it to light! I’m really proud of the work I’ve done for this fic, so I hope that everyone who reads it gains some happiness from it. 
> 
> Now, a few things:
> 
> \- I modeled this college experience after my own college experiences in the US. 
> 
> \- I do talk about some business major stereotypes, but I am IN NO WAY am I saying that all business majors are like this. These are just things that I’ve heard about (and seen) in my time at university, so I thought I could incorporate them here, especially since this whole fic came to light because of the idea of Jennie being a business major popped into my head. 
> 
> \- I do not think that Jennie is a bitch, and I do not write her as such for the majority of the story because I literally love her so much. 
> 
> \- I’m aware that this fic starts off really slow, but I promise if you stick with it, it does get better. I had so much fun writing the ending; I was literally laughing so hard. (But IDK if that says more about the fic or about my dry sense of humor LOL). 
> 
> But, with those few disclaimers, I hope you enjoy!

The business building was… chaotic to say the least. It was almost like the building itself  
radiated bad energy. 

No one knew if it was the snaky business majors, or just the pretentious track record of the business college itself, but anyone who wasn’t a business major _hated_ it there.

So, it wasn’t a surprise when Jisoo Kim didn’t want to go inside. 

Jisoo really didn’t want to cut through the business building to get to her class. But alas,  
her professor was a dick and took off participation points for tardiness. And lucky for her, she had a class across campus right before his. So, of course, Jisoo found herself climbing up the stairs to enter that horrible place that business majors called home. 

Her friend group had unanimously decided that it was the most chaotic building on campus, just barely outranking the dorm building where they lived. 

Jisoo was speed walking through the building checking her phone every ten seconds to gauge her time. She had to go up a floor to get to an exit on the other side of the building. 

Jisoo takes one look at the line for the elevators and ops out, opening the door to the fire stairwell instead. 

“Shit, I can’t be late,” Jisoo says checking her phone again. Five minutes until classes started. She was chopping up the stairs taking two at a time. Some girl walking down the stairs looked at her like she was crazy. 

Jisoo finally gets to her floor and opens the fire door hastily. 

But this was not a normal opening of the door. 

For on the other side was a person that she just opened the door onto. Jisoo feels the impact from her side. 

Horrified, she quickly gets out of the doorway to see what damage she has caused. 

On the ground, looking dazed, is a girl with brown hair dressed in a pantsuit and heels. Beside her are papers with graphs written on them that Jisoo couldn’t even begin to decipher. 

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry, are you ok?” Jisoo asks the girl, kneeling down next to her. 

The girl looks at Jisoo with anger written all over her face. “Next time watch where the fuck you’re going,” she tells Jisoo while standing up. “I have a presentation for my marketing class that I really can’t be late for.” Jisoo looks back at the girl appalled. 

“Excuse me? I apologized,” Jisoo said, “and don’t act like you’re the only one with some place to be just because you’re wearing a pantsuit and have some fancy graphs. I happen to be running late as well.” 

“Well then,” the girl says, picking up her papers and stacking them. “I suggest you get going if you’re truly running late.” Jisoo feels as if she’s gotten slapped and anger boils up inside her. 

“Listen, I apologized, and if you’re still going to be a bitch about it because I accidentally opened the door onto you, then forget about it,” Jisoo says with spite, turning to exit the building. She sees the girl roll her eyes right before she leaves. 

Jisoo checks her phone one more time. She had three minutes until class started. She decided to book it just to spite that girl and her professor. 

As soon as she’s out of the business building she takes off running to the building next to it. Her class was on the first floor, thank goodness, so she got there right as the professor asked for something on clicker participation. Throughout the whole class, she blindly takes notes of the powerpoint and the lecture. In the back of her mind, she can’t stop thinking about that girl and how much she had pissed her off. She didn’t even know her name, but of course, that girl’s major was glaringly obvious. 

“Business. It’s because she’s a business major!” Jisoo yells at Yeri and Dahyun sitting across from her in the liberal arts building. “That’s why she was so bitchy! They’re all snakes, all of them.” She puts her notebook down on the table with extra force.

Her friends stare back at her, the gears in their head turning to come up with a response.

“That’s not true Jisoo,” Dahyun says.

“Yeah, Irene Bae is a saint,” Yeri adds. 

“Yes, but Irene is Irene. She’s the only exception to the rule,” Jisoo responds.

“So maybe this girl is the same way,” Dahyun chimes in. Jisoo gives her a look.

“I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever disliked someone so fast in my life,” Jisoo tells them, crossing her arms. 

“Maybe she was just having a bad day,” Dahyun says in the other girl’s defense. “I’ve lashed out at people before when I was going through it.” 

Jisoo thought about that. Yeah, it was true Dahyun had lashed out at both her and Yeri before (more Yeri than herself), but Dahyun’s level of threatening was a pissed off pomeranian. 

This girl was more like a pissed off chihuahua. 

“Or maybe she’s just a bitch,” Yeri says, typing something on her computer. Dahyun shoots her a look.

“We can’t just assume that.” 

“We can when she said all that shit to Jisoo. Especially after she apologized.” Dahyun sighs. 

“Even if she was having a bad day, she really shouldn’t have lashed out on me,” Jisoo chimes in. Yeri nods in agreement. 

“I guess you guys have a point,” Dahyun says. 

They all go back to doing their own work when Jisoo hears one of the doors to the building open. She looks up and is met with an image of a girl in a pantsuit holding a stack of papers. 

The image looked so familiar... 

_It was that bitch from this morning!_

Quickly she gets her friends’ attention. 

“I think that’s her,” Jisoo tells them, trying to direct her friends with her eyes. Yeri leans over Dahyun to get a better look and Dahyun turns around to see the girl. 

“Wait,” Dahyun says quickly. “I think I know who that girl is.” 

Jisoo whips her head to face Dahyun, and Yeri, leaning across Dahyun, reaches and shoves her shoulder. “Traitor!” she tells Dahyun.

“Wait, I can’t tell if that’s her for sure though. Give me your glasses,” Dahyun says. Yeri sits up and hands her glasses over without any hesitation. Jisoo looks at both of her friends in confusion. 

“Our prescriptions are basically the same, don’t worry, _Mom_ ,” Yeri says, rolling her eyes. “You act like this is the first time you’ve seen us use each other’s glasses before” 

Jisoo, at a loss for words, like she was a lot of times when she was with her friends, just laughs. 

Dahyun puts on her glasses and looks in the direction Jisoo saw the girl. “Yes, I do know her!,” Dahyun says. “But she’s a business major, what the heck is she doing in the Liberal Arts building?” 

“Wait, you know her?!” Jisoo and Yeri say at the same time. 

“Yeah, her name is Jennie,” Dahyun says, turning back to her friends. “She’s in the rapping club I’m in. Every time I’ve talked to her, she’s been so sweet.” 

_What_ , Jisoo thinks. _This girl is in a rapping club? This bitchy business major that chewed her out for accidentally ramming the door into her was in the same silly rap club that Dahyun was in?_

“No fucking way,” Yeri says loudly, breaking Jisoo out of her thoughts. “There’s no way that girl is in the same rap club as you.” 

“No, I'm 100% sure she is,” Dahyun says. 

“She looks way too bougie and high strung though!” 

The girl, Jennie, as Dahyun called her, was walking towards the area they were at. 

Jisoo shrinks down in her seat hoping to avoid being seen by her. She doesn’t know if she’s seen her yet, but this was her chance to get away. 

“Nope, I can’t do it,” Jisoo says to herself, gathering her stuff ready to sprint away. 

“Oh no you’re not,” Yeri says, pulling her back down into her seat. “If I have to suffer so do you.” Yeri jabs a finger into her chest. 

Jisoo slumps back in her seat, rubbing her chest, wondering what on earth she ever did to deserve _this_. 

“Hi, Jennie,” Dahyun says, loudly as soon as Jennie is within an earshot. Jennie hears her and shoots her a bright smile. 

“Hi, Dahyun,” Jennie says, walking towards the group. 

Jisoo was appalled seeing this exchange. The girl sounded nice. Like, genuinely nice. Is this even the same person?

“What are you doing here? I didn’t know you had an affinity for the liberal arts.” Dahyun says, smiling at Jennie. 

“Oh, I was just here for some office hours for my psychology class,” Jennie says to Dahyun. She turns over and sees Jisoo. Her face registers recognition immediately. 

“Wait,” Jennie says, pointing at Jisoo, “I think I’ve met you before.” 

Jisoo internally scoffs. 

“Yeah, we met in the business building. When I accidentally opened the door onto you and apologized,” Jisoo says sarcastically, with a fake smile. 

Jennie’s eyes widen and her smile gets bigger. 

“Oh, that was you,” Jennie says with a forced laugh. 

“Yeah, that was me,” Jisoo says back, flatly.

“Look,” Jennie says, turning to Jisoo, “I am really sorry for how I acted then. I had a presentation for my marketing class, so I was under high stress. I’m not trying to make excuses, but I hope you’ll accept my apology and we can move past this in the future.” She gives Jisoo a hopeful smile. 

Jisoo gives her a curt nod. Jennie turns back to Dahyun to save herself from an awkward silence. 

“I love your glasses Dahyun! Are they new?” Jennie asks, her million dollar smile back on her face. Dahyun is about to answer when Yeri steps in. 

“No, actually, they’re mine,” she said matter-of-factly, plucking her glasses off of Dahyun’s face and putting them back on, leaving Dahyun a bit confused.

“I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure to meet you yet,” Jennie says, turning towards Yeri. “Hi, I’m Jennie,” she says sweetly. “What’s your name?”

Yeri looks over at Jisoo. It was evident to Jisoo that Yeri was still suspicious of Jennie like she was. Yeri gives Jisoo a knowing look and turns back towards Jennie with a poker face on. 

“I’m Yeri,” she says flatly. 

“What’s your major?” 

“Anthropology.” 

“Oh, that’s so cool, I’m a-”

“A business major,” Yeri finishes for her. 

Jennie’s smile falters. 

“How did you know?” 

“No one else needs, or wants, to take a marketing class unless they’re a business major,” Yeri says. 

Dahyun’s head whips around to face Yeri. She was still smiling, but her eyes looked panicked. Jisoo looks at Yeri’s smug and confident face and then turns to look at Jennie. 

She’s still smiling. What the heck? 

“You’re right,” Jennie says with a laugh. “Marketing isn’t the most fun business class.” Yeri looks confused. 

“Wait, there are fun business classes?” Yeri asks. 

“Oh yeah, I really enjoy my entrepreneurship class!” Jennie says brightly. 

_This girl seems so nice_ , Jisoo thinks. _How in the world is this the same girl from this morning?_

“Well, I better get going,” Jennie says. “It was nice to see you Dahyun, and to formally meet you, Yeri and Jisoo. I hope to see you guys around.” She gives them all one last smile and walks down the stairs. 

As soon as she leaves, Yeri and Jisoo look at each other baffled. 

They both open their mouths to say something and two very different things come out.

“There’s no way that’s the same girl I was talking about.” 

“There are fun business classes?” 

Dahyun looks at both of them and frowns. “That was the most awkward encounter I have ever had with her.” 

“Hey, don’t blame us,” Yeri says defensively. “It wouldn’t have been awkward if she hadn’t been so mean to Jisoo this morning. She knew she was in the wrong which is why she tried to save her own ass.” 

“She seemed so… nice though,” Jisoo says, still trying to wrap her head around it. This girl that she just talked to seemed to be so sweet and understanding, while the girl from this morning was downright ruthless. 

“She is Jisoo! I promise,” Dahyun says, grabbing Jisoo’s hand. “I’m sure you’ll find out for yourself.” Dahyun lets go of her hand and starts packing up her stuff. 

Dahyun’s sentence takes a moment to register in Jisoo’s mind.

“Wait, what do you mean I’ll find out for myself? I have no intention of ever seeing her again, especially after that awkward ass conversation,” Jisoo says.

“She said she was in a psychology class,” Yeri says. “There’s a good chance you might meet her.” 

“No way,” Jisoo says, standing up. “It’s been two months into classes this semester, I would’ve noticed her by now!’ 

“Our classes are huge, Jisoo. Remember last semester when I tried to see how long it took you to see me in our cultural anthropology class? It took you a month and a half,” Yeri reminds her.

Jisoo gives her a glare. 

“Well, until I see her in one of my classes, I’m not going to worry about it,” Jisoo starts walking away from them. As soon as Jisoo starts walking down the stairs, Yeri turns to Dahyun. 

“She’s in for a treat,” she tells Dahyun. Dahyun looks back at her confused. 

“What do you mean by that?” 

“Jennie is in Jisoo’s psychology class.” 

“How do you know?” 

“I’m in their psychology class too.” 

A week had passed after The Business Incident, as Yeri liked to call it, and still there was no sign of Jennie in her child psychology class or her regular psychology class. 

She was grateful, to say the least. She didn’t necessarily dislike Jennie, especially after her seemingly sincere apology, but their introduction had been too messy for a potential friendship or getting to know each other. She was content with their acquaintance and she would like to leave it at that.

But, as The Three Fates would have it, things don’t always work the way Jisoo wanted them to. 

“Everyone in this class will participate in a month-long research project with a partner,” her professor drones. “You will try to find out what people your age classify as love, and try to gather many different viewpoints and why they define love the way they do. Any questions?” 

Jisoo sees a few people raise their hands. She zones out for a second, thinking she’ll probably just partner with the girl sitting next to her. 

“Oh yes, I forgot to mention that your partners have been predetermined randomly by me,” the professor says. 

Jisoo’s head snaps up at this. 

“I’ve sent an email to all of you disclosing the name and ID photo of your partner to make it easier to find them in this class. Please check your emails now.” 

Jisoo pulls out her laptop and logs in to her email.

It’s loading as the professor says, “Please realize that this assignment will take a whole month to gather information and concoct the project. Don’t put this off until the last minute.” 

Jisoo clicks on the email from her professor. 

“You will also need to meet with your partner frequently to compare and contrast the information you’ve gathered. You’ll meet with your partner during the next lecture.” As soon as the professor finishes saying this, Jisoo’s email loads. 

No fucking way.

“Jennie Kim!” Jisoo says, throwing her hands up in the air and collapsing on Yeri’s bed. 

Yeri lets out a laugh and Dahyun takes a seat next to her for moral support. 

“Don’t laugh at me, I’m suffering!” Jisoo says, still lying on Yeri’s bed. 

“You had this coming,” Yeri says, still laughing. At this, Jisoo sits straight up. 

“What the hell do you mean by that?” Jisoo says, looking at Yeri intensely. 

“I knew she was in the same psychology class as you, you’re just too much of a dumbass to notice,” Yeri responds matter-of-factly. 

“How the fuck do you know my class roster?” 

“I’m in that class too Jisoo, that’s how the fuck,” Yeri says, tugging a strand of Jisoo’s hair. 

Jisoo looks at Dahyun mortified. “How am I going to survive this?” she wails, collapsing on the bed once again. 

“Jisoo, you said it yourself,” Dahyun begins. “She seems like a nice person. Just try and move past that awkward stage and things will be just fine. Don’t stress!” Dahyun gives Jisoo a smile. 

Jisoo sighs. It was hard not to believe Dahyun when she said it like that. “I guess you’re right.” 

Jisoo looks at Yeri, who had now taken a seat on her other side. “You said you were in my class. Who did you get paired up with?” 

“Some girl named Sana Minatozaki?” Yeri says, trying to recall the name as best as she could. 

“Oh, I think I know her,” Jisoo responds. “She’s like a big ball of inexhaustible energy.” 

“Oh yeah, I think I know her too,” Dahyun says. “She’s friends with Chaeyoung I think. Chaeng’s always complaining with how she flirts with her all the time.” 

Yeri groans, putting her head in her hands. “I don’t know if I can deal with working with a flirt for a month.” 

“She’s nice though,” Jisoo adds quickly. “And she’ll do her fair share, I promise.” 

“She better because I will not hesitate to confront her and tell her to get her shit together,” Yeri says, looking back up. 

“You both really make social sciences sound very un-fun,” Dahyun says laughing. She gets up and stretches. “So when do you guys meet your partners?” 

“Prof said next lecture,” Yeri says. “So, Wednesday I think.” 

“Alright Jisoo,” Dahyun says, slapping Jisoo’s back. “You’ve got approximately 36 hours to prepare to see Jennie again. Try and make the interaction as normal as possible.” 

“Easy for you to say,” Jisoo responds. “Everyone loves you.” 

“Just go with the flow, don’t worry too much about it,” she continues. 

Jisoo turns to Yeri. “You,” she says, pointing a finger at her. “You are coming with me to find Jennie. I refuse to do this alone.” 

“Ok, but we’re finding Sana first,” Yeri says. 

“Deal. Might as well prolong this peace I have for as long as possible.” 

It was a Wednesday. Did anyone actually want to be at the 11 AM psychology lecture? No, but of course people still showed up. 

Jisoo had Yeri’s wrist in a death grip, refusing to let the girl even have a chance to escape from her. 

“Jisoo, chill for a second I won’t run away. You’re cutting off my blood circulation,” Yeri says, twisting her arm away from Jisoo. Instead of listening, Jisoo just grabs her other wrist in the same kind of grip. Yeri sighs in defeat. “Fine whatever,” she says, throwing her free hand up in the air. 

Once the majority of the students had settled in and taken a seat, the professor allowed them to get up and roam around the room to look for their respective partners. It was Yeri’s turn to take the lead now. Immediately she got up and started dragging Jisoo around with her. 

“Sana, Sana Minatozaki!” Yeri says loudly, amidst all the other students calling out names. 

“Hey, do you happen to know a Yerim Kim?” one girl asks them. 

“Yeah, I do,” Yeri responds. The girl looks hopeful. “I’m her!” Yeri continues, smiling. 

“Oh yay I found you!” Sana says, happily.

“Yeah, you found me,” Yeri says with an awkward laugh. “But now we have to find my friend’s partner, come on.” 

Sana follows from behind them looking around. “Who are we looking for?” she asks Yeri. 

“Um, do you know a Jennie Kim?” 

“Oh, your friend is paired up with Jennie? How lucky, she’s gorgeous!” Sana tells Yeri and Jisoo, putting her hands over her heart. Both Yeri and Jisoo give Sana a look. 

Jisoo walks around aimlessly with Yeri and Sana trailing behind her. She wasn’t in any particular rush to find Jennie. 

“Oh, hey, I found her,” Sana says, grabbing Jisoo’s shoulders from behind. “She’s right over there.” She points towards the front where Jennie was standing near the stage of the auditorium. 

_Great_ , Jisoo thinks. _The time has officially come_. 

“Come on, let’s go!” Sana says, grabbing one of each of their hands. She drags them both towards Jennie. 

“Fuck my life,” Jisoo says to Yeri from behind Sana. 

“Jisoo, you’ll be fine, stop worrying,” Yeri says back. “Just don’t try and make things more awkward by acting like they are.” 

Jisoo takes a deep breath. _Just don’t make things more awkward. Easy enough, right?_

“Hi Jennie!” Sana says once the three of them reach her. “I found your partner!” She pulls Jisoo and shoves her towards Jennie. Jisoo gives her a sheepish smile. 

“Oh hey Jisoo, I’m glad to see you again,” Jennie says with a smile. Then she turns and spots Yeri. “Yeri, I’m glad to see you again too!” 

“Nice to see you again too,” Yeri says, giving Jennie a small smile. 

Jisoo takes a breath. If Yeri can exchange words with Jennie without making it awkward, so could she. 

“Hey Jennie, I’m glad to see you again as well.” She gives her a smile that hopefully looks genuine. 

Jennie turns her attention back to Jisoo. “I’m excited to start working on the project,” she says. 

“I am too!” Sana says, grabbing onto Yeri’s hand. “You know what we should do? We should all get coffee together to work on it!” 

Jennie laughs and looks at Jisoo. “Is that good with you?” Jisoo laughs too. 

“Yeah, I’m free after five,” she responds. 

“I am too! What about you Yerim?” Sana asks Yeri. 

“That’s good with me, and call me Yeri please,” she tells Sana. 

“Ok Yeri, it’s a study date!” she says. 

As soon as she says that, the professor releases them from class. Fifteen minutes early, but Jisoo suspects that he just couldn’t handle all the students talking with their prospective partners. 

Jennie starts to walk away, but Jisoo realizes no one had asked her if she was free.

“Hey, wait,” Jisoo says, grabbing onto Jennie’s arm. She turns around. “Was that time ok with you?” Jennie lets out a small laugh.

“Yeah, it’s good with me, don’t worry,” she says smiling and patting Jisoo’s hand. “See you then.” 

Jisoo lets go of her arm and watches her leave before she turns around and leaves too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this fic was able to bring you some happiness during these troubling times!  
> Also, I've been forgoing doing all homework to get this fic done, and I can tell you first hand that it was worth it.
> 
> Feel free to leave feedback, kudos, and comments. All will be appreciated!


	2. Falling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jennie Kim comes marketing her way into Jisoo's life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking of updated the rest of the two chapters around this time for the next two weeks, so I hope you guys look forward to it!
> 
> This chapter has some time jumps going back and forth a little, so I'm sorry if that's confusing for anyone! If you have any questions about the timeline in this chapter, just let me know! This chapter is more for development and stuff, not my favorite, but I still hope you enjoy it!

Jisoo arrives at the campus coffee shop with Yeri 10 minutes before five to wait for Sana and Jennie. 

“You know, I think you and Dahyun might be right about making this whole thing not awkward,” Jisoo says, turning to Yeri. “I just have to put in the effort to move past our first encounter.” Yeri nods. 

“Of course we’re right. Anything I agree with is right because I’m always correct,” Yeri responds, sticking up her nose. Jisoo rolls her eyes and laughs. She shoves Yeri’s shoulder. 

“I’m going to use the restroom, I’ll be right back,” Yeri says, getting up. 

Jisoo opens up her laptop and opens a black document to prepare for their brainstorming session. 

“Hey, is this seat taken?” Jisoo hears a voice say and looks up. She makes eye contact with Jennie. 

“Oh, no it’s not go ahead,” Jisoo says and looks back down at her computer. Jennie takes a seat. 

“So, what’s your major,” Jennie asks. Jisoo looks back up. Did Jennie not know her major? Maybe she didn’t, now that she thinks of it. She doesn’t remember ever mentioning it. 

“I’m a psych major,” Jisoo responds. She thinks for a moment, but she knew that she couldn’t ask Jennie what her major was if she already knew it, so instead, she goes for a safer bet. “What area of business are you specializing in?” 

“I’m focusing on marketing!” Jennie says enthusiastically.

 _She seems to be really passionate about her major_ , Jisoo thinks to herself. _Can that really be a bad thing?_

“Oh, nice. Do you know Irene Bae? I think she’s also a business marketing major,” Jisoo says. Jennie’s face lights up. 

“Yes I know her, she’s one of the only people in my major that I actually like,” Jennie says with a laugh and makes a face. Jisoo laughs at this. 

“Wait, business majors hate other business majors too?” Jisoo says jokingly. She was a  
bit nervous about asking this question, even jokingly, but Jennie seems to take it well. 

“Yes of course, it’s not just non-business majors,” Jennie says laughing. “There are some incredibly snaky business majors out there. One time, an acquaintance of mine got her money finessed when she joined a business sorority and paid the $1000 deposit only to find out it was a fake club and they were only advertising to get money.” Jisoo widens her eyes in shock. 

“No fucking way, I can’t believe that people actually do that.” 

“I can’t either. It’s people like them who give business majors a bad name. But, to  
answer your question, yes, business majors hate other business majors too.” Jennie laughs. 

“I honestly never knew that, I thought all business majors were like, all allies or something,” Jisoo says jokingly. 

“Only when it benefits them,” Jennie says, a knowing look on her face while pointing at Jisoo. 

“Hey Jennie, what’s up?” Yeri says, sitting back down. 

“Oh, hey Yeri, not much. I was just talking to Jisoo about how I hate some business majors too.” A grin spreads across Yeri’s face. 

“Really? That’s hilarious. Which ones are the worst?” Yeri asks. Jennie thinks for a moment. 

“If I’m being completely honest, I think marketing majors are pretty bad,” Jennie says. “And I know it’s ironic I say this as a marketing major.” She lets out a laugh. 

“Wait, why are they so bad?” Yeri asks. 

“It’s because they know they’re kind of really good at getting people to give them things, like money, if they play their cards correctly,” Jennie responds. 

“But not all of you are like that,” Jisoo says to Jennie. 

“Right.” Jennie says, smiling. 

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late,” Sana says, rushing in. “I forgot where this place was.” Yeri looks at her with a questionable gaze. 

“You forgot where the campus coffee shop was?” Yeri asks. 

“Yeah, I don’t come here often and I’m super directionally challenged,” Sana says with a laugh, taking a seat. Yeri just looks at Sana and sighs. Jisoo can already hear what she’s thinking. 

“Working with her is going to be a pain in the ass,” Yeri tells Jisoo as they’re walking back to their dorm together from the coffee shop. 

Despite common belief, Yeri did know how to get shit done… she just didn’t do it all the time. 

Jisoo recalled a conversation she had with Yeri last semester when she was taking an introductory chemistry class. Jisoo, having suffered through that class the previous year, had repeatedly warned her that it wasn’t a class she could bullshit her way through, but Yeri seemed completely unfazed. 

_“Yeri, you have a chemistry test next week, you need to start studying,” Jisoo told her sternly. Yeri looks at Jisoo with tired eyes._

_“I can deal with that later, I need to finish reading Romeo and Juliet for my British Literature class,” Yeri responds._

_“You don’t have a test on that for a few weeks, chemistry should be top priority,” Jisoo says. “This is a hard ass chemistry class. It’s not something you can bullshit your way through.”_

_“Yet I do it anyway,” Yeri says back, winking at Jisoo and going back to her book._

Jisoo was just about ready to strangle Yeri, and she probably would have if she didn’t love her so much. 

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad,” Jisoo tells her. 

“So Sana, what’s your major,” Jennie says, taking a sip of her coffee. 

“I’m a dramatic literature major,” Sana says, striking a pose. 

“Dramatic is right,” Yeri says, under her breath. Jisoo hears it and stifles a laugh. 

“Oh, that sounds cool!” Jennie says, sounding genuinely interested. 

“So, I have a question for you.” 

Sana leans in. 

“What are your thoughts on The Great Gatsby?” Jennie asks.

“It’s the single most beautiful and well written piece of literature I have ever read,” Sana responds. Jennie purses her lips. 

“I’m so sorry,” she tells Sana. 

“Wait, are you saying you don’t like The Great Gatsby?!” Sana asks Jennie, jaw dropping. Jennie shakes her head. 

“I can’t believe you,” Yeri chimes in. “That book was amazing!” She points an accusatory finger at Jennie. 

“What do you think of it Jisoo?” Jennie asks, turning to her. 

Jisoo looks up from her computer, thrown off guard. “Um,” Jisoo starts, “I’ve never actually read the book.” She smiles sheepishly. 

“You’ve never read _The Great Gatsby_?” Sana said with a gasp. “I can’t believe you!” 

“What do you mean you never read it, Jisoo?” Yeri says, pointing an accusatory finger at her. “Didn’t you have to read it for your English Lit class last year?”

Jisoo’s eyes widen at the recollection of having told Yeri that she couldn’t help her with her sociology homework because she had to get that reading done. “Um, yeah, about that…” 

That’s when Jennie interjects. “Don’t worry guys, I’ll convince her to read it this semester, even if it really isn’t that great of a book.” She winks in their direction. 

“Hey, don’t even try,” Jisoo says to Jennie. “We are working together for this project, and for that only.” Jennie just smiles at her. 

“I’m just kidding,” she says, touching Jisoo’s arm. “But, if a copy of _The Great Gatsby_ accidentally ends up in your dorm room, it wasn’t me who put it there.” 

She looks towards Yeri, and Jisoo sees Yeri give Jennie a wide grin.

“Well, speaking of this project,” Sana starts, bringing everybody back on topic (see, she can be taken seriously!), “how do you guys think we should start to gather information for it? Like, it’s ideal to interview friends and acquaintances of course, along with online resources, but who else can we interview about love?” 

The rest of the girls are immediately brought back to the topic at hand, and they think about who they could possibly interview for this broad ass topic that their professor so lovingly gave them.

“Well, I have a couple of friends that I can interview, and if all else fails, we can always approach people walking around on campus,” Jennie says.

“I’m down for that,” Yeri says. 

“Yay guys,” Sana says enthusiastically. “This is a great place to start!”

“So, who are we going to interview?” Jisoo asks Jennie. 

“I have someone in mind for us already,” Jennie says, pointing towards Jisoo. “But for you,” Jennie says, pointing towards Yeri, “do you happen to know someone by the name of Joshua Hong?”

“Wait,” Yeri says, “does he happen to have a friend by the name of Dino?” 

“Yeah, I think he does,” Jennie says. 

“Then yes, I think I do know him,” Yeri says. 

“Is he a biomedical engineering major?” Sana asks. 

Jennie smiles and nods. “Yeah, that’s him.” 

“Why are you sending us to interview him if you’re friends with him yourself though?” Yeri asks. 

“Because I know you can handle interviewing him. You intimidated me when we first met, and I scare everybody,” Jennie says, a slight laugh in her voice. “And besides, I’ve heard way too much about his love life anyway. Before he and Jeonghan got together, he would text me paragraphs of how much he liked him. I can do without it.”

All the other girls laugh at this.

“Either that, or Sana can charm him,” Yeri jokes, making Sana laugh. 

“I don’t think my charms are that great, but I can try,” Sana says with a laugh. 

“Ok, but getting back on topic,” Yeri starts, “what questions do we even ask? Like what they think love is?

“Yeah, something like that,” Jennie says. “Something open ended like-” 

“What is love?” Sana finishes. 

“Yeah,” Jennie says. “Something like that.” 

“Well, can we even answer that question for ourselves?” Yeri asks. 

All the girls are quiet for a minute, then Jisoo pipes up. 

“I’m not too sure I can.” 

Meeting up with all the girls was kind of fun. They all contributed to the conversation and brought a different perspective to the table. They seemed to be making good progress, setting up interview times and trying to find people they could interview who weren’t their friends. 

_Maybe_ , Jisoo thought, _this whole project thing won’t be such a bad experience after all._

“Ok, so, besides you thinking working with Sana is going to be a pain,” Jisoo starts, “you have to admit that meeting was pretty successful.” Yeri nods absentmindedly. 

“Yeah, it did go pretty well, all things considered,” Yeri says. “You didn’t even seem that awkward when you talked to Jennie!” Jisoo rolls her eyes. 

“That was the goal,” she says flatly. 

“You know,” Yeri says, “Jennie seemed to be really friendly with you today.” Jisoo looks over at Yeri with a questioning look. 

“What do you mean by that?” Jisoo asks Yeri. Yeri just looks away without answering her and keeps walking. “Yeri what the hell do you mean?” 

“Nothing,” Yeri says carelessly and just continues to walk. 

“Yeri, we literally live together don’t fuck with me I will get it out of you,” Jisoo says back. Yeri quickly changes the subject. 

“So, you never finished reading _The Great Gatsby_ , huh?” Yeri says, catching Jisoo completely off guard. 

“Well, I technically did because my TA passed me and thought my annotations were ‘insightful’ and ‘well thought out,’ but in reality, no, I never finished it,” Jisoo admits while making air quotes. 

“So, truthfully, why couldn’t you help me with sociology?” Yeri asks. Jisoo was surprised at how serious Yeri was being. 

It wasn’t that Yeri couldn’t be serious, but it was a lot more common for her to be more laid back and teasing.

_Did I hurt her feelings? I hope I didn’t; I didn’t mean to, something just came up._

“Well, truthfully, it was initially because I needed to finish reading the book, but instead, I had gotten roped into helping Rosé and Lisa work through some kinks in… whatever their relationship is.” 

“Wait, they’re together?” Yeri asks, turning to Jisoo, shocked. 

“Oh shit, I thought they went public about it,” Jisoo says. “You cannot tell anyone about it because both of them will literally murder me and then you.” Jisoo hopes the urgency in her voice is enough to convince Yeri that they both needed to be silent about this. 

“I mean, I’m not surprised. I don’t think anyone would be. Joy’s been saying it was inevitable,” Yeri blabs on, sounding like she had completely missed what Jisoo had said. “But why would they want to keep it a secret?” 

Ok, maybe she was listening. 

“It’s because they don’t know if they’re ready to actually ‘commit’ and ‘date’ and tell all their friends or whatever. Rosé approached me first and asked for help because she said, and I quote, ‘I’m a psych major so I could help them fix their relationship problems and I have patient doctor confidentiality,’” Jisoo tells Yeri. 

“But you do-”

“I know, and Lisa told her that, but you know Lisa will do just about anything to make her happy, even if that means agreeing with her about that. And besides, if they both trusted me enough, that was a good enough reason for me to help them work things out,” Jisoo says with finality and sighs. “But anyway, please please don’t tell anyone becaus-”

“They’ll kick both of our asses, I got it,” Yeri finishes for Jisoo. “You don’t have to worry about me. The only people I’m in danger of telling are Dahyun and you, and you already know, so that already cuts my odds of spilling this in half.” Yeri shoots Jisoo a faux innocent look. Jisoo rolls her eyes. 

_I see she’s back to her normal self_ , Jisoo thinks. 

“I would say not to tell Dahyun, but I already know you’re doing that the first chance you get,” Jisoo says with a small laugh. 

“She gets the best friend pass,” Yeri says, already typing a paragraph to Dahyun to meet them in her dorm. 

Jisoo really did love how close her little friend group was. 

Even if that meant she was in danger of getting her ass kicked. 

_Well_ , Jisoo thought, _at least we’ll get our asses kicked together_. 

A week passed by without a four group meet up due to midterm season coming in full force. 

_We should try and meet up all together next week_ , Sana sent in the group chat. 

_I can’t, I’m sorry, I have two more tests next week that are going to kick my ass if I don’t study_ , Yeri replies. 

_Oh, it’s ok, we can meet up as a whole the week after!_ Sana replies, somehow sounding just as cheerful over text as in person. 

Jisoo puts her phone down and goes back to studying her child psychology notes. Almost as soon as she starts reading her notes again, her phone pings with a text notification.

 _Hey, I know we can’t work as a group next week, but would you be free to work on the project one-on-one_? Jennie asks. 

Jisoo stares at her phone unable to think of a response. 

Yeah, she was free, but would it be awkward without Sana and Yeri there to keep a conversation going?

But, ultimately, they had to work on the project. Jisoo wasn’t always going to have the comfort of Yeri and Sana being there to stave off the awkwardness. 

This was something she had to deal with on her own.

 _Yeah, I’m free, what’s a good time for you_? Jisoo quickly replies before she could change her mind. 

They decide to meet at the campus coffee shop again, and then go meet up with one of Jennie’s friends, and then plan out what else they needed to do to complete the project. 

Jisoo shows up a bit early and saves a table for the both of them. She opens up the previous document on her laptop and stares at it blankly. She tries to make her own definition of love and type it onto the doc, but it was hard for her to focus. She couldn’t stop thinking about Jennie for some reason. 

Objectively, she was gorgeous, yes, but she was sure that she wasn’t the only one that thought that. Jisoo wouldn’t be surprised if she had half of the greasy frat boys pining over her day after day. 

_Wait, what am I thinking_ , Jisoo thinks to herself, quickly beating her intrusive thoughts back with a stick. 

She goes back to stringing her thoughts together on her document. Jisoo pretty much zones out typing onto the document that she doesn’t even notice when Jennie shows up in front of her and greets her. 

“Hey, Jisoo,” Jennie says clearly, snapping Jisoo out of her thoughts. 

Jisoo quickly looks up and meets eyes with Jennie. 

“Oh, hey Jennie,” Jisoo says in a way that she hoped sounded natural. “Are you ready to head out?” 

“Yeah, of course!” Jennie says enthusiastically. 

“Where are we headed?” Jisoo asks. 

“Um,” Jennie says, taking a peek at her phone. “According to my friend’s text, we’re headed to the business courtyard.” 

“The business college has a courtyard?” Jisoo says, astounded, while putting things into her bag.

“Yeah, it does. Not many people outside the business school know about it though. I guess you could say it’s a college secret,” Jennie says with a small laugh. 

Jisoo laughs a little as well, but she finishes putting her things into her backpack. 

“Ok, I’m done,” Jisoo says, zipping up her bag. 

She looks up to find Jennie staring at her. 

“Hey, um, Jennie,” Jisoo says, standing up, snapping Jennie back to reality. 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jennie says, looking sheepish. “Yeah, ok, let’s go!”

They walk out of the cafe and head to the business building. 

“So,” Jennie says, starting a conversation to fight the awkward silence, “since this kind of stuff is your forte, what are your thoughts on the project so far?” 

Jisoo purses her lips together thinking. 

She hadn’t thought much about the project herself, more engrossed in trying to not be awkward around Jennie. 

What did she think of the project? 

“I think it’s an interesting concept for sure,” Jisoo says. “I think it’s interesting that we’re actually going out and asking students our age what they think love actually is, and not just assuming everyone has the same definition, despite what psychology and biology define it as”

“I agree with you,” Jennie says, adjusting her backpack. “I will say that the psychology and physiology of love is not something I know a ton about, so I’m interested in learning more about it, just because I haven’t acknowledged it much.” 

Jisoo nods and gives her a smile. 

“Well, I hope you’re able to learn more about it with this project.” 

“I’m sure I will when you’re my partner,” Jennie says, winking and knocking their shoulders together. 

Jisoo lets out a small laugh. “I’m not like some magnificent psychology student, but I’ll help you understand what I can.” 

Jennie suddenly stops walking and looks up. “Oh look we’re here!” she says, and grabs Jisoo’s hand, pulling her towards the business building. 

Jisoo tenses from the contact, but doesn’t do anything to pull away. 

_Don’t make things awkward_ , Jisoo thinks. 

And besides, their little friend group always grabbed each other’s hands when they went somewhere. This was just Jennie being friendly with her. 

So, she let herself be dragged by Jennie into the business building.

The building felt just as chaotic, even if Jisoo was going in there willingly.

“Not going to lie,” Jennie says, scrunching her nose as they walk into the oh-so-pretentious business building. “This place is so chaotic.” 

Jisoo laughs at this. “Oh my gosh, you think so too? I thought it was only non-business majors that thought that.” 

Jennie laughs at Jisoo’s statement. “Absolutely not. We have so many damn plaques of people who founded businesses, bought stocks, donated, and shit like that. But, I’ve been to the science building and the biomedical engineering building, and the scientists don’t flex nearly as much as these guys do, even if they were able to map genomes for multiple strains of the flu.” 

Jisoo grins at this, and looks around at the floor they were on. 

Low and behold, there was a whole wall of plaques dedicated to alumni of the college that donated to renovating the building. 

“Oh my gosh I never noticed that whole ass wall of plaques was just for donors,” Jisoo says, laughing next to Jennie. 

“It’s crazy right!” Jennie exclaims, leading Jisoo to another set of doors that led outside. “And people here wonder why the business school doesn’t pass the vibe check.” 

Just then, Jennie sees someone she knows and calls out to her. 

“Nayeon,” Jennie calls out, and drags Jisoo over to where the girl was. 

The girl looks up and smiles tiredly at Jennie. “Hey, Jennie.” The girl, Nayeon, looked like the father from Coraline, a half consumed iced coffee in her right hand. 

“Nayeon, are you ok?” Jennie asks, concern evident in her voice. 

“I’m doing the best I can. I’ve had midterms for four weeks straight, and still have some next week too, so I haven’t gotten much sleep.” As if on cue, the girl yawned. 

“You have to take care of yourself! Let me know when you get back to the dorm later so we can have a self-care night,” Jennie says. 

“Jennie, you really don’t have t-” 

“I insist. I know having midterms relentlessly for weeks is no fun. Please, just at least let me give you this much help.” 

Nayeon smiles, and Jisoo notices the fondness in Jennie’s expression. Something stirs inside her gut, but she can’t quite place the emotion. 

_Whatever_ , Jisoo thinks, dismissing whatever intrusive emotion was making her feel that way.

“Well,” Jennie says, after her and Nayeon had made more small talk, “we should probably get going. We’re going to go interview Jun.” 

_Thank goodness_ , Jisoo thought. She was beginning to feel a bit awkward just listening to their conversation, but Jennie was still holding her hand, and she wasn’t going to make things more weird by prying her hand out of Jennie’s. 

Nayeon laughs. “Who did you pawn Joshua off to then?” she says. 

“Yeri got him because she knows how to put someone in their place, and I can’t listen to another Jeonghan love confession,” Jennie says, laughing along with Nayeon. 

Nayeon laughs out loud at this. “Honestly, I don’t think I could handle it either,” she says. 

“Well, I’ll let you go. See you back at the dorm, and don’t forget the self-care night!” Jennie says.

Nayeon gives Jennie a thumbs up and walks towards one of the exits. 

Jisoo, still feeling a bit awkward, even as Jennie is dragging her to this secret business courtyard, decides to ask about Nayeon.

“Was that your roommate?” Jisoo asked. 

Jennie nods. “Yeah, that was her. She’s a biochemistry major, because ‘she doesn’t love herself.’ Her words, not mine. She was probably just cutting through the business building to get to the science building.” 

Jisoo nods, taking in all this new information. 

So, odds were that because Jennie and Nayeon were roommates, that they probably weren’t dating too, right?

 _Wait, why do I even care?_

“We’re here,” Jennie says, opening yet _another_ pair of doors to the courtyard. 

Jisoo looks around in awe. 

It really wasn’t super fancy, but it had a nice relaxing aura, and seemed like it was well kept, unlike the courtyard at the student center. 

“Oh, there’s Jun,” Jennie says, after catching sight of her friend sitting at a table with his laptop. 

Jennie, once again, drags Jisoo behind her, and walks up to Jun. 

“Hey, Jun,” she says, a bright smile on her face. 

“Jennie, hey,” Jun responds, shutting his laptop and turning to her. He then looks at Jisoo. “You must be Jisoo, her project partner, right?” 

Jisoo nods her head. “Yeah, that’s me,” Jisoo responds sheepishly. “Nice to meet you.” She extends her right hand out to shake his hand. 

After Jun and Jisoo are introduced, there’s a bit of a lull, until Jun breaks the silence.

“So, are you guys still going to hold hands while you’re interviewing me or…” he starts. 

Jisoo looks down at their interlocked hands, feeling her face heat up. Jennie looks towards Jisoo. “I should probably get my laptop,” Jisoo says. Jennie looks down at their interlocked hands and quickly pulls away. 

“Oops, I’m sorry, Jisoo!’” Jennie says, nervously smiling and wringing her hands together. “I didn’t even notice we were still holding hands!”

“Oh, no you’re fine. It was nice, I just need my laptop to type Jun’s answers,” Jisoo responds. 

As soon as the words leave her mouth, Jisoo quickly regrets what she said. 

Even Jun’s facial expression at that statement tells Jisoo that she kind of fucked up.

“Um, I mean-,” Jisoo quickly tries to stutter out. 

“Well, if you thought it was nice, maybe I could hold your hand more often,” Jennie responds with a wink. 

Jisoo hears Jun stifle a laugh, while she herself is at a loss for words, slack-jawed at Jennie’s confidence. 

_Is that just part of being a business major_? Jisoo thought. 

Luckily, she didn’t have to respond to Jennie because Jun started talking. 

“So, you gave me food for thought and asked me ‘what is love?’” Jun said to Jennie. “I have a vague answer, but can you elaborate on what you mean by that question?” 

As soon as Jennie’s attention was off of her, she pulled out her laptop and sat down at the table next to Jun so she could take notes. 

“Yeah, so, do you have your own definition of love,” Jennie asks. 

“Like, how would you put the feeling of love into words,” Jisoo chimes in. “How would you describe what love means to you? For example, feeling your pulse race, or feeling like you can’t be away from the other person for too long. Things like that.” 

Jun nods his head. “I think I would define love as a journey,” Jun starts. “For both of the people. Nobody is perfect, but the least you can do when you love someone is to be willing to go on the journey with them as they try to be better for you, and vice versa.” 

Jisoo just nods her head as she types out his answer. 

He looks back up at Jennie with a smile. “What do you think of my definition?” 

Jennie purses her lips and nods, but a smile was threatening to overtake her face. “I liked it a lot, but I think you have more on your mind,” she said, hitting him on the shoulder. 

“Hey, ow, ok, ok, I’ll elaborate more,” Jun says, laughing while pushing Jennie’s hand away. 

Jennie giggles and pulls her hand away, and something in Jisoo’s stomach twists again. 

But then Jennie pulls out her phone to ask him a few more questions and she hears Jun start elaborating on his definition of love, and that alone is enough to pull Jisoo back to reality and begin typing some notes. 

When the boy is finished talking, Jisoo has a good amount of notes typed up on her computer. 

“I think we’re good to go,” Jisoo says enthusiastically, shooting both Jun and Jennie a thumbs up. “I have good thoughts written down, we just need to make sure we can make it sound good together and coherent. Can we use your name for the project?” 

“Yeah, of course,” Jun responds, nodding his head. “May I ask what you guys have to do for this project?”

“Well, we have to write a 5-7 page essay about what college students think about love, and add a visual like a graph or chart or something. We also have to do our own online research about the psychology of love” Jisoo explains enthusiastically. 

“Are you a psych major?” Jun asks, smiling. 

Jisoo is caught off guard by his accurate prediction, but she smiles anyway. “Yeah, I am actually. How did you know?” 

“You just seem pretty knowledgeable and enthusiastic about this project, and knew exactly how to explain things,” Jun says. 

Jisoo gives him a smile. “What’s your major, Jun?”

“I’m an economics major,” Jun says. “That’s actually how I know Jennie. We worked together on a macroeconomics project, and trust me when I say that project was… something else.” 

Jennie laughs at this. “I would not wish that type of project on my worst enemy.” 

Jun laughs along with her, and Jisoo even joins in, despite the feeling in her gut minutes prior. 

“Also, this might sound like a really weird question, but are you friends with someone named Yeri?” Jun asks, turning to Jisoo. 

This question takes Jisoo by surprise, he hadn’t expected him to ask her this. “Yeah, I am, why? Do you know her?” 

“Oh, I personally don’t, but one of my friends, Dino, knows her because they’re in the same major. They worked on a project together last semester, and he said he was kind of scared of her,” Jun says with a laugh. 

“Yeah, she can definitely come off that way when she does group projects,” Jisoo says, laughing. “She just really doesn’t want to end up doing the whole project on her own, so she can come off a little overbearing.” 

“But, that same energy is the reason that I got her to interview Joshua,” Jennie says, a victorious grin on her face. 

“She does know how to get shit done, right,” Jun says, smiling. Then, he stands up and picks up his bag. “Well, I have a class to go to, but I’ll see you guys later!” He waves at both Jennie and Jisoo as he walks away.

“Ok, so we’ve interviewed Jun today, now we just need to figure out who else we can interview,” Jisoo says, sitting back down and scrolling through the notes on her doc. “And if they’re all willing to be mentioned by name in our report, so that we don’t have to dance around to try to make their points anonymous, but it’s fine if they don’t want to give their names.” 

Jisoo looks up at Jennie to see her staring at her with her resting face that many found intimidating, but Jisoo was getting used to it. She knew that it was only her resting face and that it didn’t reflect her actual personality. 

“Hey, Jennie,” Jisoo said, hitting Jennie’s foot with her own. “Are you listening?” 

Jennie then snaps out of her little daze and flushes, looking somewhere above Jisoo’s face. “Oh yeah, I heard you. Sorry I just kind of zoned out a little,” Jennie said sheepishly, combing through the bottom of her hair. 

“No, you’re good, don’t worry!” Jisoo said, shutting her laptop and standing up. “I have to head to class soon, but when do you want to meet up next?” Jennie checked her phone again. 

“Do you think we could meet up again this weekend? To try and put our notes into essay form and start with the visual?” Jennie said. 

“Yeah, that works with me,” Jisoo said. She turned to leave, but she felt Jennie grab onto her wrist.

“Thank you,” Jennie says, smiling. “I think we make a great team.” She tilts her head to the side, still smiling, and Jisoo feels herself falling. 

Figuratively of course. 

Because Jisoo was not Sana.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t ship Jun and Jennie, but he’s a fellow ‘96 liner with her, and he’s been bias wrecking the shit out of me lately, so I decided to write him as a friend of Jennie’s.
> 
> I also made Joshua a biomedical engineering major because in a Star Road interview he said that if he wasn’t an idol, he would have probably been a doctor (which is so crazy to think about, and just thinking about that makes me want to cry, but that’s besides the point). I hope you enjoyed this chapter! (Also, I'm excited for the next chapter to introduce him haha). 
> 
> Feel free to leave feedback, kudos, and comments. All will be appreciated!


	3. Yeri and Sana Take on the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeri and Sana interview Joshua, and Sana and Dahyun meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is really short, but I didn't think it would fit including it with the previous chapter or the last chapter, so I decided to make it its own. 
> 
> I hope you're all doing well, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! 
> 
> And, thank you guys so much for leaving comments and kudos!

Sana was a handful. 

During group sessions, it was bearable. Jennie’s cool personality and Jisoo’s mom-like behavior were able to balance out Sana’s general bubbliness and exuberance. 

It was a different story as a pair though. 

Now, Yeri didn’t dislike Sana at all. 

She was a sweet girl and most definitely knew how to get work done.

However, she was so full of energy all the time and got easily distracted, and Yeri felt like she had to run, both literally and figuratively, to keep up with her.

For example, their little foray at the food court in the student center the other day. 

Yeri and Sana were walking together to go meet up with Joshua to interview him, and Yeri was giving Sana a rundown of things they still had to finish doing for the project. 

As they were walking, Sana stopped completely dead in her tracks, causing Yeri to continue walking without her and look back, frustrated. 

“Sana,” Yeri said. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Who’s that cute girl?!” Sana says, stopping in her tracks to gape at said girl. 

“Where?” Yeri says, looking towards where Sana was pointing. 

“Over there,” Sana says, pointing to a girl with blonde hair. Yeri’s eyes widened with recognition. 

“Are you talking about Dahyun?” Yeri asks, genuinely confused. 

“Oh my gosh is that her name? Do you know her? Can you set her up with me? Can we go talk to her please?” Sana rambles. She grabs Yeri’s arm and starts to pull her to where Dahyun was sitting. 

“Yes, yes, no, and not right now. We have shit to do.” Yeri says, shaking off Sana’s grip and grabbing Sana’s arm herself.

“No wait, please,” Sana whines. “Just for a minute.” 

“The pretty girl can wait, this interview cannot,” Yeri says adamantly, dragging Sana to another floor of the library. “You can talk to her when we finish interviewing Joshua.” 

Sana pouts. “Fine, but only because you asked so nicely,” Sana said sarcastically. 

Yeri laughs, letting go of Sana’s arm. “It’s my specialty,” Yeri said, winking at Sana and slinging an arm around her shoulder. 

But, Sana was a great project partner to have. 

Yeri, despite common belief, did enjoy having Sana as her partner. 

But, if you were to put a knife to her throat and ask her to attest to that statement, she would flat out deny it. 

“Joshua Hong?” Sana asks a boy with blue hair, sitting alone at a table. 

“The one and only,” the boy responds, looking up at her. “Are you here to interview me for a project?” 

“Yeah, we are,” Yeri says from beside Sana. 

“You must be Yeri, right?” Joshua says, pointing to Yeri. 

“Yep, that’s me,” Yeri says, pulling out another chair at the table and sitting down. Sana quickly follows in suit, pulling out her laptop. 

“So, what’s the topic of this project?” Joshua asks. 

“‘What is love?’” Sana says cheerfully. 

“Yeah, we’re interviewing various students around campus what their definition of love is,” Yeri says, pulling out her own laptop to see the questions that she prepared. 

“Ah, I see,” Joshua said, pulling out his phone. “But why did Jennie make you come and interview me? She knows I’m extremely knowledgeable on the topic.” 

Yeri gives him a questioning gaze while Sana laughs. 

“That’s actually why she sent us,” Yeri said, a smirk on her face. “She actually sent us because, she said, A, I’m intimidating, and B, she was sick of hearing you talk about how much you like your boyfriend.” 

Joshua rolls his eyes and laughs. “Fair enough, but can you call yourselves close friends if you _haven’t_ sent paragraphs of text talking about your crush? The answer is no.” 

Yeri and Sana laugh along with Joshua at this. 

“Ok, loverboy,” Yeri says. “Let’s get down to business. What do you think love is?” 

At this, Joshua starts talking like he has been literally waiting his whole life to answer this question, pushing both Sana and Yeri’s typing abilities. 

“Wait, wait, slow down. Can you repeat that?” Sana said, furiously typing to catch up to his words. 

He repeats what he says, and as Yeri starts asking her own questions that she thought up, he answers those with poignance as well. 

“Damn,” Yeri said, once she was done asking questions. “You honestly have a way with words. You could be a poet.” 

Joshua smiles at this. “Thanks. Some may say it’s the most charming thing about me,” he says, brushing hair out of his face. 

“‘Some meaning Jeonghan?” Yeri says, causing Sana to laugh out loud and Joshua scowling at her, but without malice. 

“Very funny,” he says. “But yes, him, among many others.”

Yeri rolls her eyes at this, but there’s a small smile on her face. 

“So, do you have anything else you need to ask me for this project?” Joshua says. 

Right as Yeri is about to say that they were done with the interview, Sana pipes up unexpectedly. 

“Yes! How do you get a significant other? There’s this really pretty girl downstairs and Yeri knows her so I want to know how to make a first good impression,” Sana says in a quick string of words. 

Joshua looks caught off guard at this, but he smiles and answers anyway. 

“Don’t force yourself to be someone you’re not just to snag a significant other. They should like you for who you are; you shouldn’t have to put on a facade,” Joshua says, his words of wisdom blessing Sana as she nods, taking in every word. “Also, don’t be too worried about first impressions. Jeonghan’s first impression of me was when I dropped a textbook on my foot in the library and got yelled at for being too loud. He laughed at me, and that’s how we met.” 

Sana nods and giggles at his story, thanking him for the advice and boost of confidence. 

Yeri laughs at this new information, thinking of the way Jennie and Jisoo met. 

Their first impression didn’t stop them from pining over each other, but now, she had hope that it was possible for them to get together besides messy first beginnings. 

And she did hope that they got together quickly. Seeing them sneak glances at each other when they worked on the project together was quite frankly, getting old. 

After the interview with Joshua was over, Sana was basically dragging Yeri back down the stairs so that they could meet Dahyun. 

“Sana, calm down,” Yeri said, stumbling behind Sana as she pulled her down a flight of stairs. 

“But she might be gone already!” Sana whined. 

As soon as they got to the lower level of the student building, Sana immediately began to scout her surroundings for said pretty girl. 

As Sana is actively looking for Dahyun, Yeri hears a voice from behind her. 

“Yeri,” Dahyun says, causing both Yeri and Sana to turn around. “What are you doing here? I thought you were interviewing someone.” 

Before Yeri could even begin to conjure up a response in her head, Sana is already spilling her guts out to Dahyun. 

“Hi, I’m Sana, and you’re really pretty! Would you like to go get coffee sometime?” Sana says, loudly, extending her hand out to Dahyun. 

Dahyun herself looks taken aback, but she still smiles herself and reaches out to shake Sana’s hand. 

“I’m Dahyun, and yeah sure, I’d like to,” Dahyun says. 

“Oh, yay!” Sana says exuberantly. “What days work for you? I can’t this week because I have a huge paper due over modernism and _The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock_ , but how about next week? Would that be ok with you?” 

Sana continues to ramble on, talking to Dahyun eagerly. 

Dahyun shoots Yeri a knowing look before turning her attention back to Sana and telling her what days she was free. 

Yeri smiles at the pair fondly, happy to see two of her friends happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I myself never had to write a whole ass paper on _The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock_ , but I did have to write some annotations on it. I read the whole ass thing, but I did worse on that annotation than annotations I did for other literary works that I didn't read LOL. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!


	4. Connection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some unfortunate circumstances bring Jisoo and Jennie closer together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHH GUYYSSSS! I'm so emo while posting this because this is the last chapter of my first chaptered fic! I remember beginning this story while I was still back living in a dorm before the pandemic happened, and I just remember thinking of the concept and how I could really take it somewhere. I'm so glad that I was able to write this story and be proud of it as well because there were times when I really didn't know if I would ever finish this story haha. 
> 
> Well, it's the last chapter, and I hope you've enjoyed the ride. <3 Thank you for reading, and I hope this made you smile. :)

“Wait, you interviewed Jun?” Yeri asked Jisoo and Jennie.

“Yeah, why,” Jisoo asked, looking up from her laptop. “Were we not supposed to or something?”

“No, but I didn’t think he actually remembered me,” Yeri says. “I thought I scarred Dino pretty bad after our bio anthro project, so I didn’t think he’d actually think any good thoughts of me.” 

“All he said was that you knew how to get shit done” Jennie said.

“Yeah, he wasn’t praising you to High Heavens,” Jisoo finishes. 

Yeri rolls her eyes. “Gosh guys let me just have a win here geez.” 

“If it makes you feel any better, you’re not scarring me while we’re doing this project!” Sana says with a cute smile. 

Jennie bursts out laughing and Yeri shoots Sana a look, but without malice. 

“Thanks Sana,” Yeri says, beginning to laugh too. “But it’s probably because you can actually pull your weight without me having to cause a scene in the library at 2AM.” 

“Did you actually yell at Dino in the library at 2AM?” Jisoo asks, aghast. 

“No, but I was really close,” Yeri said. “Especially since the project was due at 10AM and we both had a 9AM class, and we still had a shit ton to do.” 

Jennie laughs at that again. 

“Staying up late and working on a project with a lot left to finish do not work well together. I almost lost it at Jun when we were working on our macroeconomics project,” Jennie says. “We were up at 3AM in the biomedical engineering building working on the graphics and logistics of how to advertise and sell our product.” Jennie says, laughing at the memory. 

“Wait, why were you in the biomedical engineering building?” Jisoo asks, beginning to laugh along with her. 

“That’s a long story, but let’s just say it had the only printer we could access due to technical difficulties, and we could only get access to it because of Joshua,” Jennie says, beginning to laugh harder. 

“Did you guys get the project done at least?” Sana chimes in, giggling. 

“Yeah, we got it done, but we went to all of our classes that day and did the presentation without sleeping. It was truly a bonding experience,” Jennie finishes, her fit of laughter slowing down. 

Jisoo was still laughing, but for some reason, she felt that weird feeling in her stomach again when Jennie said that she and Jun shared a “bonding experience.” 

_What did that mean?_

“That’s probably why he felt so comfortable talking to you about love for this project,” Yeri points out, softly laughing.

“Honestly!” Jennie says, putting both of her arms on the table and resting her chin on one of her hands. “We had like a fifteen minute therapy session where we just ranted about random shit and then continued to work because if we didn’t do that, we honestly might have started yelling at each other.” 

“Who else was there with you?” Sana asks.

“Well,” Jennie says, “Joshua was there of course, because he was the one who had access to the printer, but he was sleeping the whole time and told us to wake him up when we were finished. Nayeon was there too, for moral support, and crying while studying for her p chem exam that was the next week.”

The other three girls laugh at this. 

“Wow,” Jisoo says. “I guess business isn’t as easy as a lot of people make it out to be.” 

Jennie laughs at this and puts one of her hands over Jisoo’s, and Jisoo can feel herself grow red. 

Yeri, unbeknownst to Jisoo, wore a smug look on her face. 

“I’d be lying if I said it was the hardest major, because I’ve looked at Nayeon’s p chem notes and I truly do not know how anyone even deciphers that shit,” Jennie says. “But, it’s not a cakewalk. Macroeconomics beat both mine and Jun’s asses, and he’s an econ major.” 

Yeri visibly cringes. “Oh yikes. Both of those things sound hard.” 

“Yeah they really do!” Sana chimes in. “I struggled enough with basic economics in high school and now economics somehow gets bigger?” 

Jennie laughs. “It gets way bigger Sana.” 

Almost like she was summoned after Jennie mentioned her name, Nayeon shows up at the cafe and spots Jennie and waves. 

“Oh hey, there’s Nayeon right now,” Jennie says, waving back. “She can tell you first hand how much p chem sucks.” 

Sana and Yeri turn around and spot Nayeon as she approaches their table. 

“Hey guys,” Nayeon says once she gets to the table. “Is this the infamous project group Jennie’s been telling me so much about?” 

Yeri nods while Sana asks, “Nayeon, is p chem hard?” 

Nayeon laughs at Sana’s innocent question, not out of malice, but because yes, physical chemistry was absolutely fucking hard. 

“It is horrible,” Nayeon says, shaking her head. “I do not know why anyone would willingly study hard chemistry.” 

“I feel you. I took one introductory chemistry class last semester and _I_ was going through it. Props to you for even tackling p chem,” Yeri says. 

“Thank you,” Nayeon says, exaggeration thick in her voice, but truly meaning her gratification. Then, suddenly, Nayeon’s face lights up with recognition. “Wait, did you interview Joshua yesterday at the student center?” 

Yeri nods. “Yeah, how did you know?” 

“I was actually studying with him before you got there, but he said he was going to be interviewed about love, and I immediately transferred to another table. I’ve heard him talk about how much he likes Jeonghan enough,” Nayeon says, shaking her head.

“Right!” Jennie exclaims laughing. “And he still does it to us even though they’re together now, and I’m like bro, go tell _him_ not _us_!” 

All the girls at the table are laughing at this point. 

“So, what did Joshua say about love?” Nayeon asks, still curious. 

Yeri turns to her computer, looking through her notes. “Joshua recited like a whole ass poem, so let me find something that stood out to me,” Yeri says. 

“Typical Josh,” Nayeon says, still laughing. 

“Oh, I liked this a lot. He said ‘loving someone means able to share your thoughts and feelings with them, even if they don’t agree or reciprocate. It also means being able to talk problems out and being open to changing your mind or a compromise,’” Yeri says, reading off of her laptop. 

“Again, typical Joshua,” Nayeon says. “Blessed with wisdom beyond his years.” 

Jennie snorts at this, but deep down, she knows that statement is true. 

“Well, unfortunately, I have to go work on a lab report, but I just wanted to say hi to some of Jennie’s new friends. I hope you aren’t getting too charmed by her,” Nayeon says with a wink. 

“Don’t worry,” Sana responds enthusiastically. “I’m not. Yeri and Jisoo have a really pretty friend I want to get to know!” 

Yeri laughs. “But, I can’t say the same for all of us,” she says, looking directly at Jisoo. 

Jisoo glares at Yeri and kicks her in the shin, to which Yeri responds with a wink. 

“Ok, well, work hard guys,” Nayeon says, laughing. She shoots finger guns at the group as she walks away. 

All the girls calm down after their little story telling session and brief visit from Nayeon and finally get to work. 

“Hey, I found this helpful article talking about the psychology of how and why college students define love the way they do,” Jisoo says. “It’s kind of old, but if you want to use it, you can talk about the evolution of how college students define love.” 

“I think we’re good,” Sana says. “Yeri said she wanted to focus on the physiology of love a little bit.” 

“Oh wow, Yeri, popping off the science,” Jennie says, raising her eyebrows. 

“All I’m saying is, if they forced me to take biological anthropology when I’m my degree is focused on cultural anthropology, I’m going to damn well use that fucking knowledge for something,” Yeri says, matter-of-factly, slamming one of her fists lightly on the table. 

“That’s good, I’m glad you’re putting what information you were forced to learn to use,” Jisoo says. “It makes me so proud,” she continues, wiping away a fake tear. 

Yeri rolls her eyes. “Well, the article is yours if you want to use it.” 

Jisoo stops her fake crying and looks over at Jennie. “Do you want to use it?” 

Jennie nods. “Sure, I think it’ll be an interesting comparison.” 

“You know what I don’t understand?” Jisoo says, looking up from her laptop. 

“What?” Jennie asks, looking at Jisoo. 

They had been hunched over their respective laptops on a shared doc typing their respective parts of the essay. They had completed a couple of paragraphs when a thought entered Jisoo’s mind, and simply wouldn’t seem to leave her be. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever understand why media like movies and shows portray public pools as fun,” Jisoo says, completely serious. “Never have I been to a public pool where I have felt nothing but pure contempt for the damn place.” 

Jennie laughs out loud at this. “That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day, Jisoo.” 

Jisoo feels something twist in her gut when Jennie laughs and tells her that she was the reason for it. 

“But,” Jennie continues, pulling Jisoo back to reality, “I totally get what you mean. I remember thinking they were kind of fun when I was younger, but as I got older, I just think they’re overcrowded and disgusting.” Jennie finishes her statement with a shiver. 

“You can say that again,” Jisoo agrees, and goes back to typing on her document. 

“So, Jisoo,” Jennie starts, causing Jisoo to look up again. “I was just wondering, and like, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but what do _you_ think love is?” 

Jisoo feels her face grow warm, and hopes, with all her might, that her light cushion foundation is enough to hide her blush. 

“Well,” Jisoo starts, trying to find the right words to string together her thoughts. “Well, um, I think love is being able to truly and deeply care about someone, even if you know about all their weird quirks, flaws, and baggage that they carry with them. Like, you’re willing to see past those things and accept them for who they are,” Jisoo says, looking towards Jennie. 

She catches a glimpse of Jennie’s expression, but almost as soon as she sees it, Jennie is back to her neutral face. 

“I like that definition a lot,” Jennie finally says after a minute. She looks towards Jisoo with something that Jisoo doesn’t know how to describe, but she feels a twist in her gut and it makes her feel like she’s falling again.

“How about you?” Jisoo asks, treading lightly with the question. “What do you think love is?” 

Jennie keeps looking at Jisoo while she tries to think of an explanation of what love is. 

“I think love is supposed to make you feel something for someone. Like, it should make you feel warm or fuzzy or something inside,” Jennie says. She takes a breath and continues. “Whenever you see that person, your heart should swell and you should feel happy just to see them. But, along with that, whenever you go through tough times with that person, you should be willing to talk with them and communicate to get through those tough times.” Jennie finishes and looks back down at her computer. 

Jisoo keeps looking at Jennie. “I like that definition a lot too,” Jisoo finally responds. 

Jennie looks back up to Jisoo. She moves her hand across the table closer to one of Jisoo’s. 

Jennie grabs Jisoo’s hand and begins to move closer across the table. 

All of a sudden, Jennie’s too close, and Jisoo feels her heart rate speed up and tries to move away, but she couldn’t due to the fact that she was sitting in her chair. 

Just when Jennie moves in closer, seemingly to kiss her, and Jisoo herself is already reciprocating, the lock on the dorm room door makes a noise, and the door opens along with a loud female voice talking about a “dumbass archaeology paper,” and another female voice telling her that she will be able to get it done. 

Then, “holy shit,” and some scuffling to quickly get back out the door. 

Jisoo and Jennie are quickly pulling away from each other, and Jisoo turns around to the back of Yeri’s head and her pushing Dahyun back out the door. Dahyun makes eye contact with Jisoo and waves awkwardly just as Yeri shuts the door. 

“I’m sorry about that,” Jisoo says sheepishly, turning towards Jennie. Jennie gives her a sheepish smile in return. 

“It’s fine really,” Jennie says. “Yeri lives here too, and honestly even if she didn’t, it still wouldn’t have come as a surprise that she somehow just barges into your dorm.” She finishes off her statement with a small, awkward laugh. 

“Honestly, “ Jisoo says, “it really wouldn’t come as a surprise.” 

They both laugh together, more comfortably this time. 

They continue working on their project until they’re almost completely finished with it. All they needed was to add visuals and revise what they’ve already written. 

The pair didn’t encounter anymore Yeri-related interruptions until Jennie had to go at around 11 PM. 

As soon as Jennie is out the door, Jisoo is typing out a text to Yeri to tell her that Jennie just left, but before she could even finish typing out the text, Yeri is already unlocking the door and dragging Dahyun in with her. 

“Ok, cut the shit,” Yeri says, shutting the door and walking over to her side of the dorm. Dahyun takes a seat on Jisoo’s bed, waiting for an answer as well. 

“What do you mean?” Jisoo asks, turning back towards her laptop to try and type out a cohesive sentence. “Jennie and I were working on the psychology project.” 

Yeri opens her mouth to say something when another voice interjects.

“Jisoo, we aren’t blind. When we walked in here, it really looked like she was about to kiss you,” Dahyun says seriously. “Now really, tell us. What the hell was that?” 

Dahyun was a sweet girl. Everyone loved her. 

So if she was sitting here, cussing, asking Jisoo what the hell is going on, Jisoo really had no other choice but to tell her the unfiltered truth. 

“I like her,” Jisoo finally answered after taking a deep breath. “A lot, despite everything. Despite how we first met,” she continues with a small laugh. 

“Well of course, who wouldn’t,” Yeri chimes in. “She’s gorgeous, and actually a really great person once you get to know her past her resting bitch face.” 

Dahyun nods her head, agreeing with Yeri. “I haven’t spent as much time with her as both of you guys had, but looking from the outside, she does seem like a good person. It seems like you like her a lot,” Dahyun takes another breath, wondering if she should even say her next thought. “And, by the looks of things from the outside, it seems like she really likes you too.” 

Jisoo feels herself flinch at that statement, simultaneously from hope, and not wanting to give herself more of it. “You’re just saying that,” Jisoo says flatly. 

“No, really,” Yeri pipes up again, from her side of the room. “I’ve spent a lot of time with both of you, and trust me when I say that she does like you.” 

“How can you be so sure?” Jisoo says. 

“Because,” Yeri exclaims. She pauses, then continues. “Because she always listens to what you have to say, and she always asks you to work together on this project one-on-one, and she stares at you when the four of us are working together.” 

“If you like her, talk to her, Jisoo,” Dahyun says, getting up from Jisoo’s bed to go stand near her desk. “The least you can do is try.”

“What if she doesn’t like me back?” Jisoo says, her voice catching in her throat. “What do I do then?” 

“Well,” Yeri says, making her way over to Jisoo and resting her hands on her shoulders, “as the wise Joshua Hong once said, ‘loving someone means able to share your thoughts and feelings with them, even if they don’t agree or reciprocate.’ And, I’m not saying you love Jennie, but if you even like her, don’t you think it’s at least worth a shot?” 

Jisoo lets out a small laugh at Yeri quoting Joshua. 

“Damn it,” Jisoo says, still slightly laughing, but her eyes tearing up. “Why did Jennie send you to interview Joshua?” She wipes a tear from her eye. “And why does Joshua have to be so fucking wise?” 

Yeri laughs and puts her arms around Jisoo’s neck in a hug. 

“Because she herself was probably already sick of his wise words,” Yeri says. 

Dahyun laughs. “Yeri, I think everyone is a little bit sick of Joshua’s unnegotiable wisdom. He’s honestly a philosopher inside of a prospective doctor’s body. Truly wisdom to be feared.” 

Jisoo laughs out loud, despite the tears leaving her eyes. 

“Dahyun, you don’t even know Joshua,” Jisoo says, sniffling and wiping the tears from her eyes. 

Dahyun pulls away from the hug. “Trust me, Vernon and Seungkwan tell me enough.” 

Yeri pulls away from the hug too and laughs. “Dino never shuts up about him either.” 

Jisoo laughs, and finishes wiping the tears from her face. 

“Ok, so when should I tell her?” 

Yeri and Dahyun both look at each other, and it almost seems like they simultaneously come to a unanimous decision without even speaking. 

“We would normally say as soon as possible and tell you to call her right now,” Yeri starts. 

“But, the project is due next week, so we think you should wait until after you guys finish working on it to avoid any initial dating awkwardness and fear of stepping on the other’s toes. You know how it is,” Dahyun finishes. 

Yeri snorts. “I’m not sure she does. She has less dating experience than me!” 

Jisoo shoots Yeri a glare, but then breaks into laughter. 

“Damn, you two are good. You finished each others’ thoughts without any verbal communication, and roasted me in the process,” Jisoo says with mock enthusiasm. 

“What can I say?” Yeri says, slinging an arm around Dahyun and resting her other hand on Jisoo’s shoulders. 

“That’s telepathic communication for you,” Dahyun finishes with a wink, putting a hand of her own on Jisoo’s other shoulder. 

That weekend, Jennie and Jisoo continually meet up individually, and with Sana and Yeri, to work on completing the project. 

Neither of them bother to address the elephant in the room, both girls choosing to opt out of that more difficult conversation until a later date, preferably one that was _after_ the project due date. 

Both pairs were together at 1 in the morning working on the project the “night” before it was due, putting any finishing touches and proof-reading each other’s work until there was literally nothing else that could be improved. 

“Ok guys I’m done re-reading our shit,” Sana says, pushing Jennie’s laptop back towards her. “If I have to read another word about the psychology of love, I might actually vomit.” 

“Same here,” Jennie said, shutting her laptop. “So, should we get to printing our shit?” 

The other three girls nod. 

The group goes to find an open library computer and Jisoo sits down to log in, and starts pulling up her online doc to print out. Right as she’s about to get up to swipe her ID, Jennie stops her.

“It’s ok, I can pay,” she says. “I am the business major after all.” Jennie shoots her a wink. Jisoo feels her face heat up, but just turns back to stare at the computer. 

“Ok, Jisoo,” Jennie says. “I swiped. Hit print.” 

Jisoo hits print. 

She doesn’t hear the printer start whirring, so she turns around to see what’s up. 

Yeri is already there with Sana close behind. 

Jennie is looking at the printer skeptically. 

“Try it again, Jisoo,” Yeri says, after hitting some stuff on the keypad. 

Jisoo hits the print button again. 

She turns around and sees Sana crouching on the ground. 

“Please say CHK CHK CHK,” Sana says, patting the printer gently on the side. 

Yeri looks at Sana in disbelief while Jennie makes her way over to the library front desk. 

“Um, ma’am,” Jennie starts. She proceeds to have a conversation with the secretary there, but Jisoo just makes her way over to the printer to see what its problem is. 

“What’s wrong with it?” Jisoo asks, looking at the printer’s screen blinking “ERROR” in big block letters.

“I don’t know. Other people were using it just fine literally an hour ago,” Yeri responds. 

All of a sudden, Jennie is standing next to them, her resting bitch face looking a bit bitchier than usual. 

“The fucking printers are down in all the fucking libraries, and even in the student center,” Jennie says with an air of frustration. “It’s ‘one big system’ she said,” Jennie continues, making air quotes. 

“What are we supposed to do then?” Sana says. She sounds calm, trying not to freak out, but there is still a hint of worry evident in her eyes. 

“The lady told me that college specific printers should be working right now, but our colleges are all the way across campus,” Jennie huffs. “And I am not entertained at the idea of walking across campus in the dark.”

“But you know what college is near here?” Yeri says, raising her eyebrows. 

Jennie sighs. “Fuck it, I’ll call Joshua,” she says, throwing her hands up in the air in defeat. 

“And, if he doesn’t answer, I’m calling Dino to get on his bitch ass,” Yeri says, right behind Jennie as she walks away to call Joshua. 

“This is like a **fucking** repeat of that dumbass macroeconmics project,” Jennie says, scrolling through her phone looking for Joshua’s contact. 

The lady at the front desk shoots Jennie a dirty look, and Jisoo laughs. 

“You would think this damn institution could have some consistently working printers,” Jisoo says laughing, hitting the side of the printer. 

Sana giggles along with her, lightly bopping the top of the printer as her own way of defying it. “You would think.” 

“So funny how history repeats itself on days where I actually get the opportunity to sleep in,” Joshua greets them outside the biomedical engineering building, wrapped in his blanket and holding his ID card. 

“Fuck off, Josh,” Jennie says tiredly.

“Well, I’m sorry if I’m a little frustrated about being woken up from my sleep in the middle of the night,” he responds, using his keycard to let the group in. 

“Well at least you’ve gotten sleep tonight,” Jennie retorts back. “And besides, it wasn’t even fucking you who answered your phone, it was your fucking boyfriend.” 

“Jeonghan wasn’t very happy about being woken up either,” Joshua responds flatly. 

“Well, Jeonghan can get over it,” Jennie seethes. “What was he even doing in your dorm room anyway?” 

“That is none of your concern,” Joshua responds.

Right when Jennie looks like she’s about to sock him in the face, Sana steps in, both literally, and figuratively. 

“Look, we’re all tired, and we just want to print out what we need to get this project done. The less we argue, the faster we will be able to print and get the sweet bliss of sleep,” Sana says from between them.

Joshua looks over Sana’s shoulder to glance at Jennie.

“Ok, fine,” he says, and turns around to lead them down a hallway.

When they get to a computer lab, Joshua keys in the passcode to let them in. 

“These computers only work for BME students, so let me log you in,” he says typing his student ID into the computer. 

“Whatta gentleman,” Jennie fake swoons. Sana lightly hits her on her arm. 

Once Joshua is out of the chair, Sana shoots him a genuine smile. 

“Thank you, Joshua,” she says, and ushers Jisoo to log into her email account to access the documents. 

“Of course,” he tells Sana, a genuine smile on his face. Then he turns to look towards Jennie. “I am just being a gentleman, after all.” 

Jennie looks at him and glares.

Yeri grabs Jennie’s arm to take her attention away from Joshua. 

“Ok, thank you so much, really Joshua, but maybe you should wait on the other side of the room, or maybe even in the hallway until we’re ready to print,” Yeri says quickly, before anyone, but especially Jennie, can interject. 

“Just let me know,” he says, making his way into the hallway. 

Yeri pulls Jennie over to the computer to see what Jisoo is doing. 

“Ok, I’ve saved our project to the computer, Jennie,” Jisoo says, logging out of her email. “Yeri, Sana, one of you can log into your email to get what you need.” Jisoo gets up and steps away from the computer as Sana sits down and starts logging in.

Jisoo goes and sits at one of the other chairs in the computer lab, and Jennie walks over and pulls up a chair next to her. 

“Thanks for logging in and doing all that stuff,” Jennie says. She leans her head on Jisoo’s shoulder from exhaustion. 

Jisoo briefly tenses up, but quickly relaxes. 

“It was no big deal really. I’m sorry that we had to call Joshua and come here to get this project printed. It must be like deja vu for you,” Jisoo says.

She feels Jennie laugh against her shoulder. “It’s not your fault. I still don’t understand why we pay $14,000 for tuition here and we can’t get some fucking printers to work,” Jennie says. 

“Trust me, I don’t get it either,” Jisoo responds. 

Right then, Jennie grabs one of Jisoo’s hands and relaxes more against her shoulder, her breathing evening out. 

Jisoo tenses up again and feels her face begin to heat up, but she wills herself to relax, because she didn’t need Yeri openly teasing her right now. 

Just then, Yeri gets up to go get Joshua from the hallway. 

“We’re ready to print,” Yeri says. 

Yeri stands there and stares at him as he takes a seemingly long time to get up, but once he does, he goes over and swipes his ID card for the printer. 

“Whenever you’re ready, Sana,” he says. 

“Please say CHK CHK CHK printer!” Sana exclaims as she hits print on the first document. 

Jisoo, Yeri, and even Joshua laugh at Sana’s little exclamation, but Jennie seems to be fast asleep. 

Jisoo can’t turn around to look at it, but she can hear the printer whirring as it begins to print out the pages of their project.

“Thank goodness,” Yeri says, collapsing onto a chair. 

“Yay! It said CHK CHK CHK,” Sana says smiling, running over to the printer. 

She then quickly runs back to the computer to print out the rest of her and Yeri’s project, and then Jisoo and Jennie’s project. 

Yeri begins to grab papers from the printer to staple them together and organize them. 

Joshua decides to take Yeri’s chair to try and catch some Z’s. 

Jisoo herself actually begins to drift off until she hears Sana exclaim, “Done! We have everything we need.” 

“Thank goodness, we can all finally get some rest,” Yeri says, stapling the final part of her and Sana’s project. 

Jisoo hears this and starts to wake Jennie up. 

“Hey, Jennie, they got everything done. We can go now,” Jisoo says, while moving her shoulder (which had gone numb, but Jennie didn’t need to know about that). 

Jennie stirs and looks around, still groggy. Her gaze lands on Sana. 

“Is it done?” she asks. 

“Yes it is!” Sana says, enthusiastically, handing the pair’s project to Jennie. 

Jennie in turn leans over to Jisoo so that they can look at the final product together. She barely flipped over the first page when she got a reminder that Joshua was still in the room.

“Aw, lovebirds,” Joshua croons. 

Jisoo feels her face heat up at his remark.

“Shut the hell up Joshua,” Jennie says, turning around to face him. “Nayeon never teased you and Jeonghan.”

“Actually she did,” he retorts, walking over to the computer and logging himself out. “She is literally the reason we got together.”

“Whatever,” Jennie says, turning back to Jisoo, oblivious to Jisoo’s mini freak-out.

“You know what,” Yeri says, getting everyones’ attention. “Let’s all just fucking leave right now. We’re all obviously exhausted, so let’s just go.”

Sana nods vigorously at this statement while Joshua responds with a “right there with you” and heads out the door. 

Jisoo is the first to get up, and she grabs Jennie’s hand to help her up too. 

“We can just meet up before class to look over it,” Jisoo says. “If that’s ok with you, of course.” 

Jennie smiles. “Yeah, it is. I just really want some sleep right now,” Jennie says with a laugh. 

“Same here,” Jisoo responds with a laugh, as both of them head out the door.

Jennie puts their project into her backpack while Joshua turns off the lights and shuts the door to the computer lab. 

“Are we all ready to go?” Joshua asks. 

The four girls stare back at him blankly, only Sana giving a slight nod.

“I’ll take that as a yes then,” he says, and leads them out of the building. 

They walk back to their dorm building together in almost complete silence, and in the lobby, they decide to say their goodbyes and part ways.

Sana heads off to the fourth floor, while Jisoo and Yeri head off to their dorm on the ground floor, leaving only Jennie and Joshua in a bit of an awkward silence.

“Look, Joshua,” Jennie begins, looking at Joshua. “I’m sorry I was bitchy to you earlier, I was frustrated, and I know I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. I am very thankful that you did come to help us.” She gives him a genuine smile. 

Joshua smiles back at her. “Thank you, Jennie. I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have been snippy back, and I’m sorry for not being the one to answer my phone,” Joshua says. 

Jennie laughs lightly.

“Don’t apologize to me about not answering your phone. Apologize to Jeonghan,” Jennie says with a slight smile. “What was he doing in your dorm again?”

Joshua smiles slightly at this and begins to walk away from Jennie

“As much respect and platonic love that I have for you, Jennie, that is still none of your concern,” he responds with a wink. He begins to really walk away towards his dorm, but then he turns around one more time. “And, please just ask Jisoo out already! I’m rooting for you guys.” 

He says it a bit loud, but Jennie doesn’t really care. The lobby is mostly empty anyway, save for the student receptionist that looks half-asleep. Instead, she laughs and says, “ok.” But, Joshua’s already out of sight, so she turns around and heads to her dorm room herself. 

The girls are able to meet up as a group one final time to look over their final projects and truly, just admire all their hard work and dedication, about one hour before they’re psychology class starts. 

“I cannot believe that this project is finally over,” Sana says, sounding somewhat nostalgic about the whole thing. “We made so many memories as a group, and I can’t believe everything we did to get it done.”

“Especially last night,” Jisoo says, her head resting on the table. 

She didn’t have the opportunity to get much sleep that night, due to unfortunate circumstances, but the little time that she did have to sleep, she spent tossing and turning in bed trying to think of a good time to tell Jennie that she liked her. 

“We can still keep in touch, right?” Sana asks hopefully. 

“Of course, Sana,” Yeri says, swinging an arm around her shoulders. “I still keep in touch with Dino and he was not a great project partner, so there’s no way I’m not keeping in touch with you or Jennie.” Sana giggles at this, while Jennie laughs softly. 

“Well, I’m glad that this project brought us together,” Jennie says, raising her fist up in the air. “Now, we can only hope that our professor will see and reward us for all of our hard work.” 

Sana groans. “Ugh, I forgot that professors actually grade things and tell us whether they think we did bad or good, no matter what we think of our own work.” 

“It is a cruel education system we have,” Yeri says, shaking her head. 

“True that,” Jisoo says, punching her fist in the air, her head still on the table.

The girls head to class together, and they fall in line to hand in their respective projects to their professor. 

Said professor then spends 15 minutes talking about how excited he was to see all the various projects and hopes that everyone put in a good amount of effort. Then, he continues his lesson talking about babies and their object permanence (or lack thereof). 

When class is released, Yeri and Sana tell Jisoo that they’re going to meet up with Dahyun because, as Sana puts it, “she’s just so pretty!” 

So, Jisoo is about to head back to her dorm alone, when she spots Jennie sitting on a bench texting. 

“Hey,” Jisoo says, kicking one of Jennie’s feet. 

Jennie looks up. 

“Oh hey, Jisoo,” she says. 

Things were feeling awkward again. Almost like the month after they had that little scuffle in the business building didn’t even happen. 

Jisoo was not going to let all her progress go to waste.

“Do you want to walk back to the dorms together?” Jisoo asks. 

Jennie smiles. “Sure, I’d like that,” Jennie responds. She gets up, and the two girls walk together. 

They walk out of the social sciences building, and into the bright sun when Jisoo decides to cut the crap and just tell her.

“Hey, Jennie,” Jisoo says, trying to make sure Jennie is listening. 

“Yeah,” Jennie responds, hitting Jisoo’s shoulder with her own. 

“You know, when I first met you, I really thought you were a bitch,” Jisoo starts. 

Jennie, seeming almost immune to hearing that as a first impression, laughs. “I get that a lot, even from people who are my closest friends now,” Jennie says. 

Jisoo lets out a small laugh out of stress. 

“Well, when we got assigned to work on this project together, I was really nervous and worried that it would be hard to work with you or that we couldn’t get along or we wouldn’t click or something,” Jisoo says. She takes another breath. “But, honestly, working with you on this project was really great, and I’m glad we got paired up. And, it also kind of made me realize something.” 

Jennie remains quiet. “What is it?” she prompts softly. 

Jisoo stops walking to look at Jennie. Jennie stops walking as well. 

“I like you, Jennie,” Jisoo says, before she could change her mind. “I like you a lot, and I understand if you don’t feel the same, but I just had to get it off my chest and tell you.” Jisoo takes a deep breath to calm herself down, and looks at Jennie’s face for a sign that she reciprocates her feelings. 

Jennie keeps looking at Jisoo then smiles and steps closer to her. 

“I like you too, Jisoo. A lot,” she says and grabs Jisoo’s hands. “Can I kiss you?”

Jisoo barely registers the question in her brain, but nods her head anyway, because who would ever turn down the opportunity to kiss Jennie Kim? 

Jennie pulls at Jisoo’s hands to move her closer, and kisses her. 

Jisoo felt dizzy, and she felt that same feeling in her gut, but this time, it wasn’t a bad or envious feeling. 

It felt like something good was happening; it felt like something that was supposed to happen. 

When Jennie pulls away, she’s smiling. Then she looks behind Jisoo and laughs. 

“Oh my gosh, look where we are,” Jennie says laughing, turning Jisoo around to look at the building. 

They were right in front of the business building. 

“Oh my gosh,” Jisoo says, laughing as well. She grabs Jennie’s hand, and they continue walking back to the dorms. 

“You know,” Jisoo continues, “it’s so crazy that we met by me accidentally ramming a door into you.” Jennie laughs at this. 

“Well, I guess that’s how all great love stories start or something,” Jennie says, kissing Jisoo on the cheek. 

“Yeah,” Jisoo says, softly, smiling. “I guess so.” 

**Nayeon, Joshua, and Jeonghan watching from the science building**

“Ah, young love,” Nayeon says, forlornly. “Too bad I’m a biochemistry major,” she continues, bringing herself back to reality.

“Don’t worry,” Jeonghan says, putting a hand on Nayeon’s shoulder. “You’ll find love someday.” He pauses. “Maybe.” 

Nayeon rolls her eyes and playfully shoves Jeonghan. 

“That was my doing,” Joshua says, pointing at Jisoo and Jennie. 

Nayeon scoffs. “Absolutely not, it was mine,” she says, pointing to herself. 

“No way,” Joshua says. “You already took credit for getting me into a relationship. Let me have this win at least.” 

“I’m her roommate,” Nayeon says. 

“I’m her gay best friend,” Joshua responds. 

“So am I!” Nayeon screeches.

Nayeon and Joshua continue their senseless bickering, while Jeonghan drowns them out and watches the newfound couple from a distance. 

(In a totally not creepy way).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, that's a wrap! I hope you guys liked it! Please leave comments and kudos and feedback and stuff because I love talking to you guys and seeing what you think of my work! 
> 
> Also, is anyone else at K:CONTACT? How has it been for y'all? TBH, I'm having a lot of fun even thought I didn't get any early bird benefits or whatever haha. It's still great to see people interact with their faves and come together online during this troubling time.
> 
> But, anyway, I hope you have a great day/night, and I hope you're doing well and staying safe! <3

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this fic was able to bring you some happiness during these troubling times!  
> Also, I've been forgoing doing all homework to get this fic done, and I can tell you first hand that it was worth it. 
> 
> Feel free to leave feedback, kudos, and comments. All will be appreciated!


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